This specification was created to be structurally and visually similar to the widely known and used ontologies, such as FOAF and SIOC. It was partially automatically generated using the SpecGen5 tool.

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Abstract

The ALOCoM Content Type (CT) ontology is defined as an extension of the ALOCOM Core ontology and focused on potential instructional/pedagogical roles of content units (e.g. Fact, Definition, Example, Exercise). Concepts defined in this ontology are aimed at annotating learning content (and its individual components) with its instructional role.

Status of this Document

This is a work in progress! This document is still changing
on a monthly if not weekly basis. Comments are very welcome, please send
them to jeljov@gmail.com. Thank you.

Appendixes

1. ALOCoM Content Type ontology at a glance

An alphabetical index of ALOCoM Content Type terms, by class (concepts) and by property
(relationships, attributes), are given below. All the terms are hyperlinked
to their detailed description for quick reference.

2. ALOCoM Content Type ontology overview

The ALOCoM Content Type (CT) ontology is defined as an extension of the ALOCOM Core ontology and focused on potential instructional/pedagogical roles of content units (e.g. Fact, Definition, Example, Exercise). Concepts defined in this ontology are aimed at annotating learning content (and its individual components) with its instructional role.

As extension of the ALOCoM Core ontology, ALOCoM CT ontology is also rooted in the ALOCoM generic content model [Verbert et al, 2004] and has Content Fragment, Content Object and Learning Object as the basic, abstract content types. However, these concepts are considered from the perspective of pedagogical/instructional roles they might have. Therefore, concepts like Definition, Example, Exercise, Reference are introduced as subclasses of the alocom-core:ContentObject class, whereas concepts such as Tutorial, Lesson, Test are some of the subclasses of the alocom-core:LearningObject class (Figure 1). The alocom-core:ContentFragment class is not sub-classed, as according to the ALOCoM model, an instructional role cannot be assigned to a single Content Fragment.

Creation of this ontology was mostly inspired by a thorough examination of existing Learning Object Content Models (such as SCORM or Learnativity [Wagner, 2002]), as well as by a closely related work presented in [Ullrich, 2005] and [Farrell et al, 2004]. Concepts defined in the ontology are intended to be used for the annotation of learning objects and their components with the pedagogical/instructional role(s) they were intended for. One should note that a Content Object can be assigned multiple pedagogical roles: each one defined from different perspective: rhetorical, cognitive, supporting (Figure 1).

Presently, the ALOCoM CT ontology has a rather simple structure. It is more a taxonomy than a real ontology, since it defines only a hierarchy of concepts without specifying any kind of relationships among them. Despite its simplicity, this ontology provided means to formally state the pedagogical role(s) of learning objects and their components. Nonetheless, our intention is to enrich the ontology with semantic properties as formal expressions of interrelations among different pedagogical roles, and hence enable an advanced level of reasoning.

3. Cross-reference for ALOCoM Content Type classes and properties

Class: alocom-ct:Abstract

Abstract - An abstract is a brief summary of a piece of content (such as a research article or a thesis). It always appears at the beginning of a manuscript and is aimed at helping the readers get the gist of the manuscript's content.

Class: alocom-ct:Definition

Definition - A content object that states the meaning of a word, phrase, or symbol. Often, it describes a set of conditions or circumstances that an entity must fulfill in order to count as an instance of a class.

Class: alocom-ct:Procedure

Procedure - A procedure generally provides step-by-step instructions that will enable a user to perform a task. It answers the question of how by telling the user precisely what to do and the order in which to do it.

Class: alocom-ct:Summary

Summary - A summary highlights the major points from a much longer piece of content, such as a document or a video. Its purpose is to help the audience to quickly get the gist of the content. It is similar to abstract.

Class: alocom-ct:Supporting

Supporting - The common superclass for all kinds of content objects that are supportive in nature. Their purpose is to facilitate comprehension of a certain topic, or some other piece of content (primarily content objects of the cognitive type).